


Between One Moment And The Next

by Leonawriter



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Episode: s01e05 Tears of the Balmera, Gen, Generally Canon Compliant, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:02:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9898211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: It's only a matter of minutes between Keith feeling relieved that they'd won the castle back, and panicking because his arms are full of a still severely injured Lance.





	

One moment they’ve got their hands clasped, and they’re having a _moment_ , because hey, Lance was  _right -_ they _were_  a good team. They’d all taken Sendak down together, and it wouldn’t have been possible of they hadn’t been a good team. Lance had even woken up to shoot Sendak’s arm off, which he had to admit, had also been kind of an awesome moment.

Shiro was looking after Pidge, who’d been knocked about a fair bit, but was also asking just as much after _Shiro_ , which he couldn’t blame her for, because he _had_  gone through a lot as well.

But then, the next thing he knew, he was looking back at Lance and Lance’s hand was going limp in his, and Keith’s eyes widened as he realised that the blast that’d knocked Lance out of commission for so long hadn’t just been shrugged off last minute. 

Lance looked like he was fainting, but they’d just been fighting the Galra a few _minutes_  ago, and for all he knew, Lance could be having a delayed reaction to some stray shot, or falling on something else, or - something. 

He caught Lance in his arms, his body an increasingly heavy weight. Lance's eyes blinked, confused, up at him, as though he was trying to stay awake, before sliding shut and not opening again.

“Shiro? _Shiro!_  He’s - I think he’s unconscious. _What do I do?”_

He’d been trained for this. He _remembered_  the lessons, from the Garrison instructors, from muffled memories he couldn’t quite place, but none of it was working, his mind was blanking out, and all he could do was hold Lance close, and stare wildly at the way his eyelids were still fluttering, at the flickering of dark violet lights where they were supposed to be a light and calming blue.

“Keith? You need to calm down. Breathe with me. You remember how to do that, right?” He nodded, but his heart rate was still going out of control because Lance was  _completely still_ , not moving at all, and compared to everything Keith could ever remember of _Lance_ , that was... wrong. Really wrong. “In... and out. That’s it. Lance is going to be fine as soon as Hunk and Coran get that crystal back here and plugged in, so that the healing pods can get put online again.”

Right.  _Right._

He nods again. To show that he understands. And he does - he  _does_. 

Lance is going to be fine. 

But at the same time-

He wasn't about to move. If he moved, he might agitate something. If he moved, and started clearing things up like Pidge was to busy herself, then no one would notice if Lance just- if he just  _didn't wake up_. 

Nearly a full year out in the desert, alone, searching for what he hadn't even understood at the time had been the Blue Lion, which had lead him to  _this_. To everyone here. Not even in  _all his life_ had there been so many people he'd felt so close to being connected to, and even if he hadn't wanted to see Zarkon and his Empire taken down before, then  _now-_ now, afraid that he was going to lose someone in his arms that he'd hardly even  _noticed_ before now-

Coran's voice came through the comms, signalling that he and Hunk were nearly there with the replacement Balmera crystal. He sighed out some of the nervous tension he'd been keeping inside of himself, buoyed up by the hope that things could get better, now.

...

Hunk finds him sat by the pod they'd put Lance in several hours later.

"Those things are really cool, you know? Coran told me about them on the way here. He should be out and back to normal by, like... tomorrow. Or something."

Keith clenches his fist, still not having fully worked through the adrenaline of having lived through the past few days.

 _Days_. It'd really just been  _days._

"Allura was right," he says, all of the energy draining out of him. "We're not ready for this. None of us are." Other than Shiro, but he didn't like to think about any of the rest of them going through what had happened to _him._ He didn't even like to think about  _Shiro_ going through what'd happened to Shiro. "Lance was lucky to survive, and any one of us could have needed to go in there with him. Or  _worse._ "

Pidge was smart and she could move quickly, but she was small, and younger than the rest of them.  _He'd_ been overwhelmed more often than he'd liked. 

"Yeah, I know, man. But that just means we have to get better. More prepared. Actually, you know -  _ready."_

Hunk had changed, somewhere between leaving and coming back from the Balmera. He was different. More focused. On the one hand, that was good - but on the other... 

Keith shivered, even though they'd managed to get the heating back on to something near what they were used to again after the switch over, and huddled further inside his jacket.

...

_"We had a bonding moment - I cradled you in my arms!"_

And Lance just... didn't remember. Any of it.

At all, apparently.

_You nearly died. I was holding you, and I thought you were going to die on me, and I'd have been the last thing you saw!_

But he didn't say that. He could have, but he didn't.

Lance was already back to laughing with the others, and feeding the mice, and... if he was honest, Keith really didn't want to break the mood. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Keith strikes me as at the same time someone who knows how to handle himself in a fight better than most of them aside from Shiro, but also one of the most afraid of losing team members. And it doesn't even need to be shippy (it can be taken that way, but doesn't have to be).


End file.
